In the traditional treatment of water and waste material, much energy is required to dry resulting sludge to a point where the sludge or other compounds such as salts can be conveniently handled or suitably used.
In addition, many water and waste treatment systems are so designed that the use of the resulting dry sludge is very limited. This is most unfortunate and undesirable because it has been found that the resulting dry sludge has numerous valuable uses, including uses such as a fuel source or as a principal material for soil conditioners or fertilizer, etc.